Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/109

 CUTLER

CUTLER

family there in wagons. His wife died Oct. 6, 1830, and in 1824 he was married to Mrs. Eliza- beth S. Chandler of Evansville, Ind., and re- moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he engraved plates for banknotes and illustrated " Taunehill's Masonic Manual."" In 1841 he removed to Evans- viUe, Ind., and died there, June 25, 1844.

CUTLER, Manasseh, representative, was born in Killingly. Conn, May 13, 1742; son of Hezekiah and Susanna (Clark) Cutler; grandson of John and Hannah (Snow) Cutler; great-grandson of James and Lydia (Moore) Wright Cutler; and gi-eat^ grandson of James and Anna Cutler of Watertown, ^lass. James Cutler came to A merica from Xorfolkshire, Eng- land, in 1634. Manas- seh was prepared for college by the Rev. Aaron Brown and was graduated at Yale in 1765. He taught school for a year at Dedham, Mass., and married, Sept. 7, 1766, Mary, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Balch, and settled at Edgar- town, Mass., as a merchant. He was admitted to the bar in 1767 and the same year began the study of theology under his father-in-law. He was in- stalled pastor of the Congregational chvirch at Hamlet, Ipswich, Mass., Sept. 11, 1771. He was commissioned " by order of the major part of the Massachusetts council, ' ' chaplain of Col. Ebene- zer Francis's regiment, Sept. 5, 17.76, and he served until Jan. 1, 1777. In 1778 he was chap- lain of General Titcomb's brigade in the un- successful campaign of General Sullivan against the British at Newport, R.I., and for his gallantry was presented with a horse by General Titcomb. He studied medicine to meet the needs of the neighborhood, and in 1779 had forty smallpox patients under his care at Wenham, Mass. In 1784, with a party, he ascended Mt. Washington and carried instruments by which he estimaied its height to be 10,000 feet above sea level, an excess of 3707 feet. His part}^ claimed to be the first to reach the summit. "When twenty-seven j-ears old he began the study of astronomy and his journal records observations at this time on the transit of Venus. He opened a neighbor- hood reading school in 1782 which he conducted successfully for twenty -five years, and at the same time instructed seamen in navigation and lunar observations. He also studied the flora of New England and was a correspondent of various

botanists and astronomical observers in America and Europe. In 1787 he was one of the projectors of the Ohio company, organized to promote the settlement of government lands on the Ohio river, and to arrange that the bounty lands granted to officers who had served in the Revolution, should be located together. The companj- purchased 1,000,000 acres of land, Oct. 27, 1^87, and congress added to it 500,000 acres for bad lands and inci- dental expenses, the arrangement being made through Dr. Cutler and Winthrop Sargent as agents of the company, who applied personally to congress, then assembled in New York citj', and entered into a contract with the government for the purchase of the land. The first settlement was made on the site of Marietta by a party of fifty immigi-ants who left Dr. Cutler"s house at Ipswich, Dec. 3, 1787, and among whom was Jer- vis, one of Dr. Cutler's .sons, then nineteen years old. They journeyed through the wilderness 750 miles behind a large wagon drawn by oxen and marked on the canvas cover "For the Ohio at the Muskingum." They readied their destination April 7, 1788, and imder the direction of Gen. Ruf us Putnam founded tiie first Avhite settlement within the limits of Ohio. Dr. Cutler subse- quently made the journey him.self in a sulky in twenty-nine daj's, and remained with the settlers for some weeks, during which time he inspected the fortifications and mounds in the neighbor- hood and advanced the theorj- that a race more intelligent than the Indians had erected them. He drafted the original resolution afterward framed by Nathan Dane, delegate from Massa- chusetts to the Continental congress, and passed by that body, July 13, 1787, for the government of the territory northwest of the Ohio in which he recited " there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory."' In 1795 he declined the apiwintment of j^udge of the supreme court of the Ohio territory. He was elected to the state legislature of Massachusetts in May, 1800, and was a representative from Massachusetts in the 7th and 8th congresses, 1801- 05. He drew up the charter of a school at Ma- rietta, Ohio, which subsequent Ij- became Marietta college. He was elected a member of the Amer- ican academy of arts and sciences in 1781, and contributed valuable scientific papers to its Pro- ceedinr/s. He was also a member of the American philosophical society. He received from Yale the degree of A.M. in 1769, and that of LL. D. in 1791, and from Harvard that of A.M. in 1770. He died at Hamilton, Mass., July 28, 1828.

CUTLER, Nathan, governor of Maine, was born in "Western, afterward Warren, Mass., May 29, 1775; son of Joseph and Mary (Reed), grand- son of David and Dorcas (Reed), great-grandson of David and Mary (Tidd), great^ grandson